Sweeper first TB casualty at Sewri hospital this year

A 28-year-old employee of the Sewri TB hospital died of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) within seven months of diagnosis. Last year, the biggest TB hospital in Asia had lost four healthcare workers to the disease, including a doctor and a nurse.TNN | March 07, 2016, 06:00 IST

Mumbai: A 28-year-old employee of the Sewri TB hospital died of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) within seven months of diagnosis. Last year, the biggest TB hospital in Asia had lost four healthcare workers to the disease, including a doctor and a nurse.

Santosh Kamble had been working as a sweeper in the hospital for the past seven years. Medical superintendent Dr Rajendra Nanavare said that he had contracted the disease in July last year and was immediately put on treatment.

In the last week of February, his health condition started deteriorating rapidly.

Nanavare added that he was the first employee to succumb this year. "We admitted him to the KEM Hospital in Parel for breathlessness. His uncontrolled diabetes and alcoholism however worsened his condition," said Nanavare.

Studies have shown that diabetics are three times more prone to contracting TB.

The grade-IV staffers at the hospital, however, said that they are the most vulnerable as they are often forced to handle patients without respirators or protective gear. "Since 2005, Kamble would be the 49th staffer to die of TB. The supply of masks needs to be more consistent," said Pradeep Narkar, secretary of the Municipal Mazdoor Union.

As many as eight healthcare workers from the Sewri hospital had contracted TB in 2015. Five out of the eight had the drug resistant form of the disease, which is associated in most cases with greater mortality and treatment failure.